A series of events commemorating the 110th anniversary of Mei Lanfang’s first performance in Shanghai were held in Shanghai – Entertainment – China Industry Network

Original title: A series of events commemorating the 110th anniversary of Mei Lanfang’s first performance in Shanghai were held in Shanghai

China News Service, Shanghai, November 18 (Reporter Xu Jing) The international academic symposium “Plum Blossoms in the East – Mei Lanfang in Shanghai” was held in Shanghai from the 17th to the 18th. More than 60 domestic and foreign experts and scholars from history, art, Starting from multiple dimensions such as society, we explore how to better study, inherit and develop Mei Lanfang’s opera art system in the present.

Teachers and students from the Drama and Drama Department of the Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University created the short film “Glimpses of Mei Lanfang’s Performances in Shanghai” to review Mr. Mei Lanfang’s lifelong relationship with Shanghai. The picture shows a still from “Glimpses of Mei Lanfang’s Shanghai Performance”. (File photo provided by Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University)

110 years ago, the 19-year-old Mei Lanfang was invited to perform in Shanghai for the first time. He left a figure as graceful and bright as the moon on the big stage in Shanghai, demonstrating his amazing talent and superb skills. and charisma.

Liu Zhen, president of the China Mei Lanfang Culture and Art Research Association and former director of the Mei Lanfang Memorial Hall, said that the relationship between Mei Lanfang’s magnificent and extraordinary life, the construction of the performing arts system, his brilliance and the Shanghai Fengyunjihui , are worthy of further discussion and summary. This seminar focuses on Mei Lanfang in Shanghai, Mei Lanfang and Shanghai, and examines Mei Lanfang and his art culture, Mei Lanfang and Shanghai-style culture from a unique perspective of regional space. This is also a manifestation of the deepening of plum studies.

Hirabayashi Nobuwa, a professor at Waseda University in Japan, pointed out that after Mei Lanfang went to Shanghai for the first time in 1913, he successively created and performed a series of new plays. In October 1914, he performed the first new fashion play “The Waves of the Evil Sea”, and in 1915 the first Mid-Autumn Festival She acted in the new costume drama “Chang’e Flying to the Moon”. These new attempts were more or less influenced by the Shanghai theater scene. At the end of 1916, after watching Mei Lanfang’s performance at the First Stage in Beijing, the famous Japanese scholar Kinoshita Taro published an article in the Japanese media detailing the advantages of Mei Lanfang’s performing arts. At the end of November 1917, Kihachiro Okura, general manager of the Imperial Theater in Tokyo, Japan, watched “The Goddess Scattered Flowers” in Beijing. From then on, in 1919, Mei Lanfang’s first visit to Japan for the performance officially began. “Mei Lanfang’s progress from 1913 to 1919 can be said to be the specific process of ‘Plum Blossoms in the East’.”

Nie Wei, deputy director of the Shanghai Theater Academy, said that Mei Lanfang took the initiative to absorb the essence of Shanghai style art, gradually formed his own performance style, and established the status of Mei School art in the history of Peking Opera. The innovation of Shanghai-style art is essentially the same as Mei Lanfang’s artistic principle of “not changing the form at every turn”. Shanghai Theater Academy is willing to work with Shanghai University to promote high-quality and healthy development of opera art.

To commemorate the 110th anniversary of Mei Lanfang’s first performance in Shanghai, the Mei Lanfang Memorial Hall, Shanghai University, Shanghai Theater Academy, Shanghai History Museum, and China Peking Opera Art Foundation will jointly host it from November 16, 2023 to February 25, 2024 “Plum Blossoms in the East – Mei Lanfang in Shanghai” series of commemorative activities, this seminar is an important academic discussion link in the series of activities. During this period, special exhibitions, opera performances and special lectures in memory of Mei Lanfang will also be held.